'Mr. nairn e’s Experiments to /hew the 
thofe terminating in a ball, and placed even with the 
higheft part of a building, though it does appear from 
thefe experiments, that they are more liable to be ftruck, 
and likewife have not the property of guarding the dif- 
tant parts of a building as elevated points have; but if 
they have a good metallic communication with the earth, 
the building might not be hurt, though the lightning 
ihould {trike on the condu&or; yet, I believe, there are not 
many who would not fhudder at the tremendous blow, 
if they were in a houfe when the conductor was ftruck. 
Thofe conductors which are recommended to be within 
the infide of a building, and one or two feet below the 
higheft part ld) , are certainly very dangerous, efpecially 
for all that part of the building above the conductor. 
I was a witnefs of the dreadful effects of a ftroke of 
lightning on a houfe that had an accidental partial con- 
ductor within the infide of the upper part of the houfe. 
It happened to a houfe near Ratcliff Highway, on the 
29th of July, 1775. In the uppermoft room flood a 
large iron triblet,of about three feet in height; the light- 
ning made its way through the roof of the houfe, throw- 
ing off a number of tiles, rending and tearing the laths 
and plafter on the infide, to get to the triblet, on which 
it ftruck from thence to a hammer, which laid on the 
(d) Mr. Wilson’s Letter to the Marquis of Rockingham, Phil. Tranf. 
vol. LIV. p. 247. 
floor 
